We can do the right thing to create positive change within ourselves and the world around us! I have created this blog with the intention of keeping you informed of news that is affecting humanity and nature throughout the world! There is no better time than the present to become a global participant and not just an innocent bystander. I have provided you with several websites to help empower yourself and a list of global organizations that you can choose from to make a difference.

Millions of people in Bangladesh are still drinking water polluted with arsenic, twenty years after the potentially deadly toxin was discovered in the supply, Human Rights Watch said today.

According to a new report from the rights group, the Bangladeshi government has failed to take the basic steps needed to tackle the problem. As a result 43,000 Bangladeshis die from arsenic-related illnesses every year, mostly in poor rural areas.

The impure water supply goes back to the 1970s, when the Bangladeshi government drilled millions of wells to provide villagers with clean water, not realizing that the soil was heavily laced with arsenic.

"Bangladesh isn't taking basic, obvious steps to get arsenic out of the drinking water of millions of its rural poor," HRW researcher Richard Pearshouse told AFP.

"The reasons why this huge tragedy has remained so pervasive are due to poor governance," he noted.

"It means the situation is almost as bad as 15 years ago," said Pearshouse.

There was no immediate response from the government, but an official who asked not to be named told AFP that individual lawmakers decided where 50 percent of the state-funded tube wells should be built.

"It's a government-approved policy. The lawmakers have every opportunity to misuse their power and divert the tube wells to their supporters rather than distributing them to the people who are affected by arsenic contamination," the official said.

The UN's World Health Organization has called Bangladesh's arsenic crisis "the largest mass poisoning of a population in history".

There is a high level of naturally occurring arsenic in Bangladeshi groundwater. The poison can cause cancers of the liver, kidney, bladders and skin, as well as heart disease. HRW warned that millions of Bangladeshis would die from arsenic-related illnesses if the government and international donors do not act to mitigate contamination.

KHIRDASDI, Bangladesh — For more than two decades, Nasima Begum and her family have been drawing water from a well painted red to warn Bangladeshi villagers that it's tainted by arsenic. They know they're slowly poisoning themselves.

"We use this water for washing, bathing and drinking," she said. There simply is no other option. Taking loans from neighbors to care for her ailing husband and four children, Begum, 45, has nothing left to invest toward digging a new well that goes deeper to reach safe water.

But she shouldn't have to, according to a government program aimed at establishing safe tube wells in poor villages.

That hasn't happened for this impoverished village, a clutch of tin-roofed huts set amid farm fields about an hour's drive from Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital. Nor has it happened in countless other villages still relying on arsenic-contaminated groundwater decades after it was revealed as a major threat across the country.

An estimated 20 million people in Bangladesh are still being poisoned by arsenic-tainted water — a number that has remained unchanged from 10 years ago despite years of action to dig new wells at safer depths, according to a new report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based rights group blames nepotism and neglect by Bangladeshi officials, saying they're deliberately having new wells dug in areas convenient for friends, family members and political supporters and allies, rather than in places where arsenic contamination is highest or large numbers of poor villagers are being exposed.

Government officials refused requests by The Associated Press for comment on the findings.

Human Rights Watch based its report on a survey of about 125,000 government wells dug from 2006 to 2012 specifically to give villagers safer options, after an earlier survey of 5 million wells found millions exposed to water that exceeded Bangladesh's arsenic contamination limit of 50 parts per billion. Bangladesh's limit, which is the same as in neighboring India, is far higher than the World Health Organization's recommended limit of 10 ppb.

"What we found was basically poor governance," said Human Rights Watch senior researcher Richard Pearshouse, who authored the report. "There is no technical problem that can't be solved if the political will is there. But what we see is that the government is using many of its valuable resources in areas where there is no need for deep tube wells from the government."

A tube well consists of a long pipe sunk deep into the earth, with a hand pump attached at the top. As surface waters including rivers and lakes became polluted with sewage, industrial effluents and agricultural runoff, millions of tube wells were dug by the government and international aid groups.

But they inadvertently tapped into arsenic, a naturally occurring and toxic element found in the soil and groundwater of some areas of the world, including vast delta regions like Bangladesh and eastern India.

Arsenic also kills about 45,000 Bangladeshis every year, and is known to be in the groundwater of at least 30 countries, including the U.S., Canada and China.

Scientists first discovered arsenic in Bangladesh's groundwater in 1993, sounding alarm bells worldwide about a massive public health crisis pouring from the millions of hand-cranked tube wells tapping water from underground.

The government took action and began testing many of the wells, painting them green if they were safe, or red if unsafe. International aid groups, including the World Bank and UNICEF, also invested money to help the government dig more wells at safer depths.

For years, there was a perception that the problem had been solved. But scientists studying arsenic-tainted tube wells in Bangladesh began noticing a pattern in where the wells were placed.

"We had found that the deep wells the government had installed were clustered, with some villages being very much privileged and others not at all," said geochemist Alexander Van Geen from Columbia University in New York. "We sensed there might be some elite capture of a public good."

Human Rights Watch interviewed 134 people for its report, from villagers at risk to government engineers and officials, some of whom tacitly acknowledged that officials were ignoring the science of which areas were high risk.

The problem is partly rooted in the government's own rules for a program to supply water to rural areas from 2010 to 2015. Those rules say that the poorest and neediest communities should be given priority, but also that members of the national parliament should decide where to allocate 50 percent of those placements.

"There is widespread and systematic diversion of government tube wells," said Pearshouse, the report's author. "These people are not putting them in the right places."

Compounding the problem, there are also wells presumed to be safe that are in fact not safe at all. Around 5 percent of the government's wells turn out to be contaminated above 50 pbb. They might have just been poorly installed, or perhaps a leak has developed in the pipe. Or it may just simply have hit a rare, deep deposit of arsenic.

That's less of a risk than the typical contamination of private wells, which are usually shallow. Experts estimate up to 20 percent are tainted.

Human Rights Watch found that some wells set up by the World Bank and UNICEF were contaminated. Out of 20,000 wells dug from 2007 to 2012 by UNICEF, 1,700 were unsafe. The U.N. charity's chief of water and sanitation in Dhaka said the wells had either been improved or replaced by September. "The problem has been fixed," Hrachya Sargsyan told the AP.

Meanwhile, the World Bank has said that it does not know whether any of the 13,000 wells it supported from 2007 to 2012 were contaminated, but that it will check, according to the report.

Experts estimate that some 20 percent of Bangladesh's 10 million tube wells, most of which are private and shallow, are likely to be contaminated.

Wells that go to depths of about 150 meters (164 yards) or deeper are usually considered safe, but even that is not certain. Scientists say the only way to be sure is to test every well. The government's last testing survey was conducted 10 years ago, and scientists say it's time for another.

But digging deeper wells is expensive. A shallow well can be dug for about $60, while a well dug to 150 meters can run up to $900.

Many people in Bangladesh, an impoverished South Asian country, simply don't have the means.

"We are poor people," said Hazrat Ali, a farmer who has not found safe water despite setting up three tube wells. "There are no rivers and canals close by. From where shall we collect water? For this reason we drink this arsenic mixed water."

No comments:

About Me

I love to travel and get away from it all whether it's 1st class, 2nd class or 3rd class makes no difference to me. I simply love to visit new places and meet new people. I really enjoy extreme sports. I started blogging ten years ago and love to be able to express and share thoughts with others.
Most recently a Mortgage Professional prior to implosion. Earned a living in my previous career as an Institutional Equity Trader (sell side). I have a bachelor's degree in finance with special emphasis in economics.

Ready to Defend! Are you?

❤ May my heart be kind, my mind fierce and my spirit brave. ❤

Hello WORLD and welcome

Thank you for visiting. I will do my best to keep you posted to global news affecting humanity and this planet as we know it today. I will bring you global news Monday through Friday adding my insight along the way. In between the non-sense, I will pepper in a little humor, random stuff and inspiration for balance and I will use the weekend to feed your spirit.

Excludes Firewall servers...
Please do not change this code for a perfect fonctionality of your counter
alternative mediacounter

What does Capitalism mean to me?

I've been asked many times if I still track the stock market. My answer is a resounding yes. The stock market is in my blood. I'm still tracking the markets, still doing research and still following economic news. This is the one industry that is the heart of global productivity. It is essential in pumping the necessary oxygen (capital) to corporations that in turn hire employees who will in turn produce the products and services that we all use. Capitalism is a very very important element to humanity. It is what fuels dreams, self-reliance and individualism!

T.E.A.= TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY! I am an INDEPENDENT/CENTRIST Former Democrat for 20 years

BLOG ARCHIVE: 2007 to Present

Connect With Me At These Social Networking Sites ♥ Click The Pics Below And Add Me As A Friend ♥

RAISE YOUR VOICE!

We don't need money to make a difference, although it does help. However, each signature is a RAISED voice demanding change! This is our contribution to the World. By saying ENOUGH is ENOUGH, together we truly CAN and WILL make a difference! Please sign a petition and help spread the word... Thank you!

Carousel

My Amazon Affiliate Account has been terminated due to a new California TAX LAW just passed. I'm keeping this display to continue promoting Miyazaki's wonderful animation that I love very much! Thank you for your support. ♥